Jake (Men of Clifton Montana Book 1)

by Susan Fisher-Davis

  “Why? What’s he doing?”

  “He’s in here every damn day. He asks if I’ve talked to you and when I tell him no, I don’t think he believes me. Like I give a rat’s ass what he believes. Christ, all he has to do is call you.”

  Becca laughed suspecting Olivia had rolled her eyes as she spoke.

  “I guess since I said we should take a break, he doesn’t think he should call.”

  “Well call him, please. That way, he’ll stop bothering me. Just be nice and tell him to fuck off.”

  Becca had no idea what she would do without Olivia in her life. They were closer than many sisters were. They’d been together since they were thirteen, fifteen years now and loved each other very much. Becca missed her desperately.

  “I wish you could come out here, Liv. I miss you.” Becca could feel the tears building up.

  “I miss you, too, Becs. Have you met anyone?” Olivia laughed. “I sound like a scorned lover.”

  Olivia never failed to make Becca laugh. Since they met in junior high school, they’d been inseparable. Becca had wonderful parents, whereas Olivia was from the wrong side of the tracks. For some reason, the two girls had clicked. Olivia had gone from foster home to foster home but was never adopted. Becca’s parents took Olivia in and wanted to adopt her but never got around to it before time ran out. Olivia had grieved alongside her when Becca’s parents died as if they were her own. Becca wanted Olivia with her but at least for now, it wasn’t going to happen.

  “I’ll call Steve,” Becca moaned. “I really, really don’t want to.”

  Olivia laughed. “Hey, I have to look at him every day and listen to him whine. All you have to do is call him.”

  Becca told her about meeting Stan and the men of the ranch. How she’d met Emma, and Gabe Stone, but it was when she talked about Jake that she felt her whole body going into overdrive. She got hot just thinking about him.

  “I don’t know what it is about Jake Stone. I know he wants me to sell the ranch to him and instead of agreeing with him, I told him he’d never get his hands on it,” Becca said with a groan. “I can’t believe I did that. Then he comes in here and finds me in the tub--”

  “What? He found you in the tub?”

  Becca explained about the bathtub, the fire building, how he’d touched her hair and even how she wondered if he was going to kiss her.

  “Did you want him to kiss you?” Olivia asked softly.

  “Pffft…no,” Becca answered in a long sigh, and then admitted the truth to Olivia and herself. “Yes. Damn it, I did. He’s gorgeous, Liv.”

  Olivia laughed. “Who would’ve ever thought you’d want a cowboy. They’re nasty.”

  That made Becca burst out laughing. Olivia joined in. They continued to talk for a while before deciding to call it a night.

  After hanging up, she locked the doors. It was then she realized that Jake Stone still had a key to her house.

  “Oooh, that man!”

  She traipsed upstairs to get a blanket and pillow so she could sleep on the couch in the living room. She would close the pocket doors and stay warm, and pray the power stayed on.

  Chapter Three

  An hour later, Becca had to go to the back porch to get wood for the fire so she ran upstairs and put her boots on. As she was coming down the stairs, her foot slipped when she was half way from the bottom. It happened so fast, she couldn’t grab onto the banister. She knew she was going to fall, but there wasn’t a damn thing she could do about it. Becca landed on her butt, bounced down the stairs, one at a time, and hit the floor hard enough to bring tears to her eyes.

  “And that is why your name isn’t Grace,” Becca grumbled as she sat on the floor stunned.

  When she tried to stand, her ankle hurt too badly to put any weight on it. With little gasps of pain, she pulled herself up to the bottom step. What was she going to do? She needed to get wood. At that very moment, the power went out. Becca screamed out of frustration. This night could not get any worse.

  With determination, Becca hopped to the living room to get her purse to retrieve the small flashlight she kept on her keychain, and then hopped to the kitchen to call Stan. Biting her lips to take her mind off the pain, she picked up the phone. When she found it was dead, a squeal of frustration escaped her lips. “Hell!” She was wrong. This night could get worse. There was only one number for Stan and it must be a landline, not a cellphone. Becca sat down at the kitchen table, shaking with nerves. Her ankle ached like it was on fire. Then, her eyes landed on the paper with Jake’s numbers on it.

  No. No way! She could not call him. Her heart warred with her common sense.

  Just what was she going to do then, hop outside to get wood, and then hop back into the living room? Taking a deep breath, Becca stood, picked up the paper, and hopped back to the living room. She was out of breath by the time she reached the couch. Taking a deep breath, she called his cellphone and waited.

  “Jake Stone,” his sexy male voice answered.

  Oh dear Heavens, his voice is amazing. “Jake, this is Becca…Becca Daniels.”

  “Hello, Becca Daniels. So did you decide you want me to come over and tuck you in?”

  “I, uh…oh, damn it! I fell down the stairs and twisted my ankle, the power is out, and I need wood. I can’t hop out there and hop back in, and…I don’t know what to do,” she exclaimed as she choked back tears.

  “You fell down? Are you all right?”

  She heard the concern in his voice. She didn’t want him to be nice.

  “Look, Stone, are you going to help me or not?” She wanted to snap at him, but her voice came out almost pleading instead.

  He cleared his throat. “I’ll be there as soon as I can.” Then, he hung up.

  Becca collapsed on the couch, shaking like a leaf. With her emotions a wreck and a throbbing ankle, she was a mess. On the coffee table, her purse lay open. Inside, she spotted the bottle of painkillers she’d gotten three months ago when she had a wisdom tooth pulled. She took the bottle out and removed two pills. Throwing them into her mouth, she took a drink of water to swallow them. Becca propped her foot on a pillow and laid back. She didn’t want to take the boot off yet. She would wait for Jake.

  About that time, the power came back on. Wonderful!

  * * * *

  Jake stood in the doorway of the living room and looked at the woman lying on the couch. She appeared to be asleep. Her booted foot was on a pillow and the fire was almost out. He’d brought wood in when he got here but she hadn’t stirred, and he’d made several trips out and back. Shaking his head, he walked over to her and gently shook her shoulder.

  “Becca.”

  He shook her again. She moaned and Jake groaned in response. He did not need this. She was too beautiful. He wanted to lay down on the couch with her, hold her, and kiss those soft Cupid’s bow lips. When she opened those green eyes, looked up at him and smiled, his heart hit his stomach.

  “Hi Jake,” she murmured. “I fell down the stairs and hurt my butt.” She giggled.

  Jake jerked back. “Have you been drinking?”

  She shook her head. “Nope, took painkillers so my ankle would stop hurting.”

  “Painkillers …well, just great.”

  Jake lifted her foot from the pillow, took a seat on the couch, and laid her foot in his lap.

  “You know I have to take your boot off. I need to wrap it for you. I’ll be careful not to hurt you, but it will hurt.” He frowned at her when she giggled again and waved her hand around.

  He untied the boot and started to slip it off when she hissed in a breath. Jake stopped, glancing at her. She nodded for him to go on. He took her boot and sock off then swore aloud when he saw the bruises already forming. Gently, he put her foot back on the pillow as he stood and went to the kitchen. Jake came back a few minutes later with an elastic bandage. When he lifted her foot to sit down, she jerked her foot back, and gasped as pain shot through it.

  Seeing she was in pain, he grimaced. “
Sorry, Red.” Touching her skin was going to be delightful torture. “This will help you feel better, and make it heal quicker. But you need to rest your foot and keep it elevated too.” Jake began gently wrapping her ankle.

  “Okie dokie,” Becca said with a snort followed by another giggle. “Those painkillers are making me goofy.”

  “Is that what’s doing it?” Jake replied with irony. “I’ll get going. Sleep it off.”

  He stood and turned to go. Getting away from her right now seemed the smart thing to do. If he didn’t, he was going to take advantage of the situation. Jake wanted to kiss her more than he wanted to breathe.

  “Wait!”

  He turned slowly back toward her.

  “What if I have to…you know…pee?” She put her hand over her mouth but the laughter bubbled out.

  Jake put his hands on his hips and hung his head. “Do you have to go now?”

  “Go where?” She puckered her brow at him.

  He blew out an impatient breath. “To the bathroom?”

  She nodded to him.

  He walked back to the couch, picked her up, and headed toward the stairs. Her arms were around his neck and her fingers were playing with his hair at his nape. Jake stopped on the stairs. “Stop it, Becca,” he said through clenched teeth.

  Becca dropped her hands away and sighed as she laid her head on his shoulder. “Okay. Sorry.”

  Barely keeping himself under control, Jake carried her up to the bathroom, set her inside, and pulled the door closed while he waited in the hall. When she was done, she opened the door and looked up at him. “Could you get my pjs for me? They’re on my bed.” She pointed toward her bedroom.

  * * * *

  Becca could hear Jake muttering and grumbling as he walked to her room. He disappeared for a minute then came back carrying her pajamas. He was still muttering when he reached the bathroom. He handed her the pajamas and pulled the door closed again. She couldn’t stop laughing while trying to put the pajamas on. But when he pounded on the door, she jumped.

  “Do I need to come in there?” Jake yelled.

  “No.” Becca opened the door and looked up at him. Without saying a word, Jake picked her up, carried her back downstairs to the couch, and laid her on it.

  “I brought in plenty of wood, so you should be set for the night,” Jake gave her a terse nod, put his hat and coat on, and moved to leave.

  “You’re just going to leave me here, alone? What do I do if I have to go back upstairs? I can’t get up there by myself.” Her voice trembled.

  “Do you want me to stay?” As if Jake dreaded the answer, he swore softly when she nodded.

  “I feel kind of funky. Those pills are strong. Maybe I should have only taken one.”

  “One? How many did you take?”

  She held up two fingers, shrugged, and couldn’t hold back a giggle. “I wanted to kill the pain.”

  Jake took off his coat and hat, tossing them onto one of the recliners and took a seat in the other. She watched him run his hand over his face as he propped his booted feet on the coffee table.

  “You should go get you shome, some blankets. They are in the lina-lina-lin-en closhet up…” Becca sat up and waved her hand toward the stairs, then collapsed into a fit of giggles.

  Jake didn’t move from his seat. He simply clasped his hands across his flat stomach and leaned his head back. “Go to sleep, Becca.”

  She sighed and settled into the couch. She heard him mutter.

  “Christ, it’s going to be a long damn night.”

  The next morning, Becca’s throbbing ankle woke her up. She sat up and looked to the chair where Jake had been. He was gone, but a glass of water and her pain pills sat on the coffee table with a note telling her to take only one and call if she needed him. She scooted to the edge of the couch and stood up on her good foot.

  How was she supposed to get up the steps? She was considering hopping up them when she heard someone knock on the back door. Becca yelled for whoever it was to come in. It was Stan.

  “Jake told me about your ankle. I’m sorry you couldn’t get ahold of me.”

  “That’s okay. Jake helped me.” Thank God for Jake, since she really couldn’t imagine Stan carrying her up the stairs. He seemed fit enough, but he was in his sixties.

  “Ted’s bringing a set of crutches. His daughter broke her leg last year and when I told him about you, he said he’d bring them for you to use.”

  Becca smiled. “That’s great. It should only be for a few days.”

  After Stan left, she tackled the stairs by crawling up them. Now all she had to do was figure out how to get back down them without falling. The stairs were hardwood with no carpeting. They were also very slick. That would need to be changed.

  Becca stopped when she realized her line of thought. Changed? Why change anything if she wasn’t staying? She shook her head as she stood at the top of the stairs looking down. She could always slide down the banister. She laughed at the thought, carefully took a seat on the top step, and moved down them one at a time on her bottom, holding onto the spindles in the banister as tightly as she could.

  Whew! She made it down all right, but she never would’ve been able to do it last night with those painkillers in her system. Becca would’ve gone down those stairs like a melted cartoon character. Feeling relieved to be on the ground floor, she hopped to the kitchen to make coffee.

  She was puttering around the kitchen carefully when there was a knock on the door. “Come in,” she called out. Thank goodness, it was Ted bringing her a pair of crutches.

  “Ted, I could kiss you,” Becca exclaimed and then laughed when his ears turned pink.

  She knew she’d get around much easier now that she had crutches for support.

  As she sat drinking her coffee, Becca decided to call Steve and get that over with once and for all. After all, she’d promised. He was going to drive Olivia insane and her best friend would end up killing him. Becca punched in his number and waited for him to pick up. She was about to disconnect the call when he finally answered.

  “Becky! I’m so glad you called. How are you?”

  She sighed. “I’m fine, Steve. How are you doing?”

  “I miss you Becky, so very much.”

  God! She didn’t know what to say to him. Lord, how she hated it when he called her Becky.

  “When are you coming home?”

  “I have to stay for six months, Steve. I told you this before I left.” Becca clenched her teeth to keep from saying something she might regret.

  “Maybe I should come visit you,” Steve suggested with hope in his voice.

  “No,” she said a little too quick and probably a little too loud. “I mean, there’s no need to do that, Steve.” Becca tried to soften her tone. “Six months will be up before you know it.” Did he not know what being on a break meant?

  She cringed when he laughed. “Maybe I’ll surprise you. I think you and I have something special, Becky. I just might show up one day and whisk you away.”

  Great. That would definitely be the last straw...

  “I have to go now, Steve. Take care and I’ll see you in June.”

  She hung up and turned the phone off. She was beginning to wonder what she ever saw in him. For the first time since arriving in Montana, she was happy to be here instead of in Maryland where Steve was.

  * * * *

  Jake rode Midnight around the huge barn he used for training. Come spring, the competitions would start and he wanted to be ready.

  Jake and his brothers were good at what they did. All three of them were into the breeding, raising, selling, and training of American Quarter horses. They trained their own as well as other people’s horses. Jake trained reining and barrel racing horses. Gabe’s field was calf-roping horses, and Wyatt’s was cutting horses. Each of them had won several competitions. Their horses had sold for up to twenty-five thousand dollars. They each belonged to the National Reining Horse Association, the National Rodeo Association,
and the National Cutting Horse Association. Their horses were certified and very much sought after.

  Jake had Midnight do several maneuvers. The horse could virtually do the moves by himself without any commands from Jake. He rode him through the figure eight, making sure Midnight changed his gait from one foot to the other, and then he ran him full speed in a straight line before he had him stop and back up. Unless done in a straight line, the judges deducted points.

  Jake glanced toward the door when it opened. He was surprised to see Becca standing there. It had been two weeks since he’d seen her and helped her with her ankle. She stood inside the door, looking uncertain. He rode Midnight over to her.

  “How’s the ankle?” he asked, leaning his arms on the saddle horn.

  She smiled and put her hand on Midnight’s nose. “It’s much better. Thank you for your help. I really appreciated it.”

  Jake grinned and dismounted. He jerked his head for her to follow him as he led Midnight to the other barn. After handing the horse off to one of the ranch hands, he put his hands on his hips and looked at her. “What can I do for you?” he asked.

  “I just wanted to thank you for helping me.”

  Jake snorted. “A phone call would have done that. Why are you here, Becca?”

  He watched her shuffle her feet and look around. She took a deep breath and blew it out. “I wanted to see your place.” She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth.

  Jake almost groaned. He wanted to chew on that lip so bad he could taste it.

  He stared at her for a few minutes then shook his head. “All right then. Come on, I’ll show you around.”

  They walked through two barns that held fifteen horses each and then Jake pointed out the pastures to her. “If the weather was nicer, they’d be outside so they can run and get some good exercise but since it’s so cold, they have to make do with the corrals. I have seven ranch hands that take care of them full time. I trust them all. If I ever see them hurting or abusing the horses in any way, they’re gone.”